In the early years
of the 21st Century gvnet.com/childprostitution/Pakistan.htm

Islamic Republic of Pakistan

Pakistan,
an impoverished and underdeveloped country, has suffered from decades of
internal political disputes, low levels of foreign investment, and
declining exports of manufactures.

Poverty
levels decreased by 10% since 2001, and Islamabad steadily raised
development spending in recent years.

Inflation
remains the top concern among the public, jumping from 7.7% in 2007 to
20.8% in 2008, primarily because of rising world fuel and commodity prices.[The World Factbook,
U.S.C.I.A. 2009]

CAUTION: The following links
and accompanying text have been culled from the web to illuminate the
situation in Pakistan.Some of these
links may lead to websites that present allegations that are unsubstantiated,
misleading or even false.No attempt
has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content.

Most of the
15,000-20,000 estimated child sex workers present in Lahore live in areas
near bus stands and railway station. Male child prostitution is more common
than any other form of commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan.

Though the trend of
selling organs (kidney.) for cash does not seem to have caught hold in Lahore
or was not reported, quite a few children were aware of the fact that they
could sell their blood for money if the need arose. The limited blood
screening facilities make such practice extremely unsafe and can spread
HIV/AIDS on a rapid scale. Though not a single child admitted to resorting to
this practice, they had come to know about this through adult drug addicts.

In a survey, I
found out that ninety-five per cent of the teenage prostitutes in Islamabad,
Rawalpindi and Lahore were sexually abused by their close relatives, friends
and teachers before they adopted the profession of granting sexual favors for
payment. In sharp contrast to the common assumption that prostitutes normally
belong to the uneducated segment of society, the survey has also found that
74 per cent of them were undergraduates.

Ninety-five per
cent of the teenage prostitutes in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore were
sexually abused by their close relatives, friends and teachers before they
adopted the profession of granting sexual favours
for payment, a new study has found.

***
ARCHIVES ***

ECPAT Global Monitoring Report on the status
of action against commercial exploitation of children - PAKISTAN[PDF]

A report published
in 2001 by the National Commission for Child Welfare and Development (NCCWD)
revealed the existence of child prostitution in Pakistan, the first official
admission of this violation of children’s rights in the country. According to
the report, both girls and boys are victims of prostitution. For example, in
some parts of the North-West Frontier Province (NWFP), which borders
Afghanistan, older, wealthy men “keep” young boys for sexual gratification,
while girls from the poorest areas of the country are being taken by organised rings to clandestine brothels in large cities.
Most of the girls prostituted in Punjab Province come from the NWFP or from
Afghan refugee camps there, and seem to be forced into prostitution when they
are in their early teens.

Research undertaken
in 2005 by the Working Group against Child Sexual Abuse and Exploitation and
Save the Children Sweden indicated that nomad children, children inthe transport industry, children working in deep-sea
fishing, children trafficked for camel jockeying, girls trafficked for
marriage, “massage boys” and boys with alternate sexual identities are all to
be found among the victims of commercial sexual exploitation of children
(CSEC) in Pakistan. The research also indicated that the sexual exploitation
of children occurs in many contexts, including in the red light district of
Lahore, at some religious shrines and in schools.

The Department of Labor’s 2004 Findings on
the Worst Forms of Child Labor

U.S. Dept of Labor Bureau of International
Labor Affairs, 2005

www.dol.gov/ilab/media/reports/iclp/tda2004/pakistan.htm

[accessed 15 December 2010]

INCIDENCE
AND NATURE OF CHILD LABOR - Further, the exploitation of children in the sex and
drug trades continues to be a problem. Pakistan is a source, transit, and
destination country for child trafficking victims. Girls are trafficked into
Pakistan, primarily from Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Iran, Burma, Nepal, and
Central Asia, for the purposes of sexual exploitation and bonded labor. Girls
are also trafficked internally for commercial sexual exploitation and other
types of exploitative labor.

Human Rights
Reports » 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices

U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights, and Labor, March 8, 2006

CHILDREN
-
Child abuse was widespread. According to child rights NGOs, abuse was most
common within families. In rural areas, poor parents sold children as bonded
laborers and at times sold daughters to be raped by landlords.

Concluding Observations of the Committee on
the Rights of the Child (CRC)

[74] In view of the
fact that child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children are reported
to be serious problems in the State party, the Committee is concerned that
the State party has not addressed them effectively.The Committee is particularly concerned at:
(a) The absence of legislation clearly prohibiting child sexual abuse and
sexual exploitation and the lack of a clear definition of the term in the
State party, as well as the lack of legislation that clearly defines sexual
consent; (b) The absence of measures to prosecute the perpetrators; (c) The
absence of statistics and data on the issue of child sexual abuse; (d)
Traditional attitudes regarding the subject (e.g. concepts like “family
honor”), which imply that a majority of abuse cases go unreported; (e)
Reports that child sexual abuse is prevalent, and increasing, in prisons.

The 11-year-old
girl blushed as she walked into the car dealer’s showroom on Quetta’s Adalat Road in southwest Pakistan. Her 17-year-old cousin,
eyes fixed to the ground, followed her. When the younger girl asked the owner
for five rupees (6 cents), he pointed to the back room and told both girls to
follow him.

POVERTY INCREASES PROBLEM -Fathers often send their
young daughters out on the streets to earn money for the family. The girls
begin by begging – some as young as 3-years old – and as they grow older,
they become part of the flourishing sex trade in this deeply conservative
city in southwest Pakistan."The
fathers of these girls are usually drug addicts or alcoholics and the family
is impoverished," said Fauzia Baloch, a
coordinator for the Aurat Foundation, an NGO that
works for women’s rights in rural Pakistan.

Male prostitution, a hidden shame: See no
evil, hear no evil, speak no evil

The Society for the
Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC) Regional Promotion Manager
Salam Dharejo, told Daily Times that although there
are many organisations working in the city for the
protection of children and women’s rights, no one has ever dared to address
the issue of male prostitution because of the strong social taboo attached to
it.

While most the city
remains shut to the idea of male prostitution, many young men have become its
victims. One such boy is Riaz Khan, 19. He is often
seen standing at the footpath between the boundary of Jahangir Park and DrDaudpota road, looking for
customers. On a usual day in the business, the roads are jammed and the
nearby shops are packed with clients. On Khan’s left, a barber works, unaware
of his surroundings and on his right many other teenage boys are lined up, waiting
for customers.“I started this
business when I was 11,” says the clean-shaved boy, wearing black clothes
with embroidery on the front. He has a womanish touch to his voice. His hands
are running through his hair. After completing his sentence, he winks.Riaz is one the
hundreds of teenagers who provide sexual satisfaction to homosexuals.
Nowadays, Jahangir Park is where all the action goes down and it can also be
referred to as the central point of their business. Most of the teenaged male
prostitutes start their business in the afternoon and the dealing reaches its
peak in the evening.

Last week a
non-governmental organisation said there was a
growing trend in the abduction and sale of Tajik boys for sexual exploitation
abroad. The Modarorganisation
said groups in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Pakistan and other countries were prepared to pay as much as
$70 000 for a Tajik boy between the ages of 10 and 12.

Most of the
15,000-20,000 estimated child sex workers present in Lahore live in areas
near bus stands and railway station. Male child prostitution is more common
than any other form of commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan.

Though the trend of
selling organs (kidney.) for cash does not seem to have caught hold in Lahore
or was not reported, quite a few children were aware of the fact that they
could sell their blood for money if the need arose. The limited blood
screening facilities make such practice extremely unsafe and can spread
HIV/AIDS on a rapid scale. Though not a single child admitted to resorting to
this practice, they had come to know about this through adult drug addicts.

“We have conducted
a study on violence against street children and the data we have collected is
quite shocking, and what is most appalling is that children studying at
religious seminaries also fall victim to sexual violence,” claimed Habib. He
added that it is common practice amongst parents, especially from the lower
strata of the society, prefer to send their children to Madressahs
as compared to formal schooling systems.

According to the
study, 21 percent of Madressah students have been
sexually abused by their teachers. Fifty-two percent of students were
sexually harassed, 28 percent had complained of unpleasant touching and 20
percent complained of forced sex, said Habib.

Almost ninety
percent of sexually violent acts against children occur on the streets, seven
percent of the children denied any sexual abuse on the streets and three
percent of these children had no idea about any such happenings. Thirty-three
percent of the children who were sexually abused on the streets revealed that
they were abused by people in police departments, while 22 percent of them
held workers of political, social and religious parties responsible, claimed
Habib.

This is not the end
of the shocking list, as shopkeepers, strangers, gang leaders, private
security guards and drivers were also held responsible for sexual violence.
Twenty percent of the children reported that 20 percent of strangers, 12
percent of shopkeepers, 11 percent of gang leaders, 14 percent of private
security guards and 22 percent drivers were among the perpetuators of sexual
violence against them. –
sccp

Child abuse mushrooming as shops offering
‘services’ spring up

Qadeer Hussain, The News
International, Karachi, November 01, 2008

thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=144233&Cat=4&dt=11/1/2008

[accessed 30 June 2011]

Tauqeer went to school for
a while but soon developed a habit of running away from home. In the
beginning, he started selling tissue papers at Sea View and earned Rs100 to
Rs120 daily.However, two years ago,
one of his friends, Naveed (not his real name) asked him to visit Jahangir
Park, near the Pedestrian Bridge, (which does not exist now), “to earn more
money.”According to Tauqeer, the world of the Pedestrian Bridge “was
altogether a different world.” This was the meeting point for male child
prostitutes and their clients.

According to Tauqeer, more than 300 children are engaged in this area
alone. “There are two categories of children involved. A majority are street
children who earn their livelihood through this mean. Then there are kids who
belong to poor families and visit the bridge to earn some extra money,” he
says. –
sccp

PROSTITUTION - The report, ”State of Pakistan’s Children”, presented the situation
of children and their rights in 2007. It focused on health, education, child
labour and violence against children in light of the government’s policy. The
report identified the poor state of education in Pakistan. It also revealed
the phenomenon of male child prostitution, and claimed that it was widespread,
especially in big cities and near bus and train stations. “Although the
National Plan of Action to Combat Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children
had been approved in 2006, co-ordinated policies
and programmes to deal with the hazard have yet to
be implemented,” it said.

Caring for children

The News International, January 28, 2008

This article has been archived by World
Street Children News and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 30 June 2011]

The rise in
incidents of street crime in Karachi and other cities of Pakistan has been
the subject of a report released this week by a local NGO. What the report highlights
is the growing number of street children involved in this activity. This is
cause for alarm. There has been a significant rise in the number of street
children, particularly in Karachi says the report adding that the reasons for
children running away from their homes include domestic violence, sexual
abuse and corporal punishment at schools, especially madressahs.
This is an issue that has to be dealt in a proactive manner. It may be noted
that street children end up joining gangs which offer them protection in
return for working on the streets. The gangs force the children into
prostitution and crime. There has been a rise in child prostitution in the
cities as a consequence of this.Also,
incidents of petty crime have also risen as children are forced to beg, steal
and borrow to retain their gang membership. Many of the children also turn to
drugs and other substance abuse which only complicates the problem. –sccp

While boys in impoverished
parts of rural Pakistan, particularly towns in the southern Punjab, are more
likely to be trafficked overseas, girls are trafficked more often within the
country, and sometimes sold into what amounts to little more than sexual
slavery, says the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP).

HRCP has reported
that in most cases, they are given away for amounts of money ranging from
US$1,300 to $5,000 by impoverished parents, sometimes in
"marriage"; and sometimes to agents who promise lucrative jobs as
domestic servants in large cities.

Many of these
girls, according to child rights groups, end up as sex workers. Some are no
older than 10 at the time of the "sale".

"Hundreds of
girls are trafficked within the country each year. There are markets in the
North West Frontier Province where these victims are sold like cattle,"
I.A. Rehman, director of the Human Rights
Commission of Pakistan, said. – htcp

9,000 sexually-abused street-children in
City

www.chowk.com/applefire/iLogs/life/Child-prostitution-in-Pakistan

[accessed 17 September 2011]

UNICEF Programme Officer Shamshad
Qureshi announced the results of a UNICEF survey that there are 10, 000
street children in Lahore, out of which 9,000 children have been sexually
abused. He said UNICET could reach only 3,000 sexually abused children and
rehabilitate them by giving them vocational training, psychological aid and
financial support to their parents. – sccp

Horrific fate awaits children spurned by
society

AroosaMasroor
Khan, The News, Karachi, February 22, 2007

At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 17 September 2011]

Out of the approximately
12,000-14,000 street children in Karachi, 50 percent fall victim to
commercial sex exploitation, a majority of them being male children between
7-11 years of age. According to data recently revealed by NGO Azad
Foundation, the number of street children in the city rose from 10,000 -
12,000 in 2004 to 12,000 - 14,000 in 2006.

She said that
street children are at a high risk of sexual abuse, targeted primarily
because they are vulnerable. Consequently, some children begin to offer
sexual services to these people and become involved in ‘survival sex’.

“Saddar is the hub
of street children from all areas of Karachi,” says Aqsa Zainab of Azad
Foundation, adding that child abusers are mostly found near shrines where ‘langar’ is distributed or near railway stations where
they arrive from other cities. It is from here the young boys are kidnapped
and sold as commercial sex workers. – htsccp

Families play a
direct role in promoting child prostitution as well. Particularly within
families themselves involved in sex work, the guilt factor is deployed to
chide young girls into the profession, as if their sexual activity were vital
for the survival of their female-headed households. Girls who enter the
profession do often end up supporting their own mothers, grandmothers and
several siblings. It is no wonder that young girls are considered an economic
asset within a family of sex workers. Personal decisions to enter
prostitution, albeit emerging from a larger process of socialisation,
also cannot be discounted. Families of young sex workers do not think their
daughters capable of doing anything else. They deprive them of education and
exposure to the larger world, so that these young girls hardly have any other
options in life. Social ostracisation of such
families further reinforces this generational perpetuation of prostitution.

On the flip side is
the demand for under-age sex workers. Seemingly oblivious to a term like paedophilia, clients can boisterously demand to have sex
with a young girl, provided they have the required money to pay for her
services. Instead of feeling guilty, these clients are reassured by myths of
male virility being boosted due to sex with younger girls.

In a survey, I
found out that ninety-five per cent of the teenage prostitutes in Islamabad,
Rawalpindi and Lahore were sexually abused by their close relatives, friends
and teachers before they adopted the profession of granting sexual favors for
payment. In sharp contrast to the common assumption that prostitutes normally
belong to the uneducated segment of society, the survey has also found that
74 per cent of them were undergraduates.

In a startling case
of organised women trafficking that has come to
light, Pakistani and Indian girls aged between 11 and 13 are being smuggled
to the Middle East countries for being forced into prostitution there. The
girls, who are shown as aged between 20 and 22 on their passports, are
brought to these countries on the pretext of getting them attracting jobs. – htcp

[B]
COUNTRY UPDATES – PAKISTAN – Another study was conducted this year in Pakistan.
The NGO Coalition on Child Rights NWFP Pakistan released its research on
‘Community Perceptions about Male Child Sex Abuse in the North West Frontier
Province of Pakistan’. The research shows that there is a high prevalence of
boys involving in CSEC in northwest Pakistan, and suggests that it is time
that the government take this problem more seriously.

Children continue to
serve as prostitutes in Pakistan's Peshawar city despite raids and a strict
vigil by the police.

Ashraf said since
the police couldn't catch the arrested men red-handed, it could not book them
under clauses relevant to prostitution. A court released the suspects."Unless the suspects are caught
red-handed, they cannot be charged under section 377 of the Pakistan Penal
Code relating to unnatural offences," he said.

Political Executions, Child Prostitution,
and Forced Marriage at the Age of 9: MsZadeh talks on the lack of human rights in Iran and the
urgency to put geopolitics to one side

At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 30 June 2011]

Child prostitution
has risen 635 percent in recent years. Dozens of Iranian girls are brought to
Karachi, Pakistan, to be sold as sex slaves every day.

Child
Prostitution

[access information unavailable]

Despite the verbal
commitments of all the governments of past and present no measures have been
taken against the child prostitution and nothing has been achieved in that
direction. Prostitution by children continues to flourish unhindered.

Child Rights

Society for the Protection of the Rights of
the Child SPARC

At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 30 June 2011]

SPARC AT THE PRE-SESSIONAL WORKING GROUP OF THE 34TH SESSION - On October 31,
2001, Pakistan signed the Optional Protocol to the UN CRC on the Sale of
Children, Child Prostitution and Child Pornography and Optional Protocol on
Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

Taking the Lid Off Child Prostitution

Mine AysenDoyran, 28 Nov 2000

At one time this article had been archived
and may possibly still be accessible [here]

[accessed 30 June 2011]

There is hardly any
day without a customer.His usual
clients are travelers changing buses at Rawalpindi or policemen and bus
drivers.His work is usually over by
midnight, when he goes home with at least 100 rupees (less than two U.S.
dollars) in his pocket.

Girls are usually
forced into prostitution when they are about 11 years old because their young
age fetches a good price to the traffickers.

Ch.3 ARH issues/Sexual
abuse and forced sex work/page 21 MALE CHILD PROSTITUTION - In Pakistan, male
prostitutes are believed to be cheaper for clients than female
prostitutes.The prime age for male
prostitutes is between 15 and 25.It
is likely that even less is known about their working environment and
specific problems because the social taboos against boys admitting to sex
with male clients are even greater than they are for girls.